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I love reading roleplaying games. I have shelves of books and folders of PDFs that I’ll never have time to play, but I read them anyway because it’s fascinating to see what different designers come up with, from the cutting edge of modern roleplaying to … read more »
Improving your work is a process fraught with conflicting feedback and emotional resistance. However, understanding some important principles can help you put the problems you encounter into perspective. Here’s five concepts that are useful for accepting feedback and making your stories better. Read more »
They got big air vents on this ship. Read more »
Pay attention, everyone! Class is now in session, and I hope you have done your homework as well as found a date for prom. That’s right, this week we’re talking about high school, but specifically supernatural stories that take place in high school. We’ll discuss … read more »
Social justice is intrinsic to storytelling. Fiction has a long history of championing the oppressed, and spec fic fans are particularly proud of that tradition. We love to pontificate about how Star Trek portrayed a racially diverse bridge crew like it was no big deal … read more »
Fictional animals come in all shapes and sizes, as it should be when the only limiting factor on biodiversity is the imagination of the artist. So why is it that, out of all possible forms, sapient creatures are overwhelmingly depicted as bipedal with an upright … read more »
Our epic adventure in Scum and Villainy concludes! The Shrike’s crew have located their target, but how can they get to it? The warp-worm is surrounded by guards, and a Hegemony dreadnought watches the skies. If that weren’t enough, our heroes have competition from an … read more »
Over the last few years, I’ve been making a gradual transition from hack-and-slash based campaigns to more story focused play, and one problem I’ve encountered is that many players don’t seem to get that their characters are allowed to grow. I’ve now had 2 specific … read more »
Take note, listener: at the end of this podcast, Oren will ask Chris what her favorite example of dramatic irony is, and she will have no answer. It will be very embarrassing for Oren, and everyone will have a good laugh. There, now you’ll get … read more »
Candy and spinach are important concepts because they describe two critical elements of character likability. Candy is anything that glorifies a character. This includes cool powers, defeating a major bad guy, being right in an argument, and anything else that makes them look cool to the … read more »